"History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions. "

He Finds War Entertaining!

Ted Koppel is an American broadcast journalist, who was for years the anchorman of the late night news program Nightline on the ABC Television Network.

Koppel moved to the US with his parents from Lancashire, England when he was 13 years old. He began working at ABC in 1963 as a foreign corespondent. From 1971 until 1980 he was the ABC News chief diplomatic correspondent, and beginning in 1975 he anchored The ABC Saturday Night News. While on the State Department beat, he co-wrote In the National Interest with Marvin Kalb, formerly of CBS News. Prior to ABC news, he worked as a WMCA Radio desk assistant and off-air reporter.

Koppel gave up his position with Nightline in November 2005 after 42 years with the network. Prior to signing off from his last show his final remarks were as follows:

There's this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at Nightline. I didn't do it with the last batch; it's a little too close to home. "How many of you," I'll ask, "can tell me anything about Eric Sevareid?" Blank stares. "How about Howard K. Smith or Frank Reynolds?" Not a twitch of recognition. "Chet Huntley? Jack Chancellor?" Still nothing. "David Brinkley" sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised, and Walter Cronkite may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news.

What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early 20s appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everyone in the country knew their names. Everybody. Trust me, the transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite begat Rather, Chancellor begat Brokaw, Reynolds begat Jennings. And each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right. You've always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for Nightline a fair break. If you don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you'll be sorry.

More recently Koppel has explored various jobs in news and media including managing editor for The Discovery Channel, where he hosts programs about major world news, he is a columnist for The New York Times, and he provides commentary to Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Day to Day on NPR joining Cokie Roberts and Daniel Schorr.

Koppel was part of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division as it marched to Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq war. He made an on-air mistake both misquoting and misattributing Shakespeare, he said "Wreak havoc and unleash the dogs of war!"; the actual quote should have been "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" Koppel claimed the quote was from Henry V but it was actually from Julius Ceaser.

Koppel is married to Grace Anne Dorney of New York City. The couple lives in Maryland and has four children.